KY_EnviroGuy
KY_EnviroGuy's JournalAny Hemingway fans that enjoy decoding pictograms?
The Elaborate Pictogram Ernest Hemingway Received in the Hospital During WWI: Can You Decode Its Meaning?Open Culture
See: http://www.openculture.com/2019/03/the-elaborate-pictogram-ernest-hemingway-received-in-the-hospital-during-wwi.html
(snips)
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If you need a hint, you might start with the apparent fact that the letter came from three of Hemingway's ambulance-driver buddies. "The letter is a cheerful narrative of the three friends’ recent hijinks," writes Slate's Rebecca Onion.
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To modern readers, the letter offers not just a glimpse into the sensibilities of Hemingway's social circle but life on the Italian front in 1918.
Ran across this by accident and thought I would share it. I'm far too much of a literalist to get very far with this one, but hope others enjoy the challenge.
.......
Not standing up for Kraft but there's a whiff of hypocrisy in this news.
Most likely, many of us here regularly do business or buy products where human trafficking was involved in producing the product or service.
Ask yourself....
* Do you buy seafood, either in a restaurant or grocery store?
* Do you ever go to a nail salon?
* Do you ever eat at Mexican, Chinese, Korean or other foreign-themed restaurants?
* Do you ever rent a hotel or motel room?
(I won't even get into the meat and produce markets)
If we answer "yes" to any of those, there's a good probability trafficked labor was involved somewhere in the process of providing you that service.
..........
Trafficking not just in prostitution in America - other businesses as well.
Human trafficking - including that of children - is part of our dark underbelly that's kept hidden from the public, and the public doesn't seem to care so long as the receive their product or service. Our citizens need to be better educated on this issue so authorities can be tipped-off when appropriate.
Children are trafficked for adoption, for labor and for prostitution, while workers are trafficked for labor in many sectors including food service, fishing, farming, nail/hair/massage salons, prostitution and many others.
I salute our investigators, prosecutors and related enforcement personnel going after these criminals....
Standardized Republican Emergency Response Plan:
1. First, look at how Repug-friendly corporations can profit from the disaster.
2. Next, look for any and all ways of minimizing government involvement.
3. List the absolute minimum items that must be done and how to delay and minimize costs.
4. Energize the Repug/Evangelical Tots and Pears Generator and flood them into all media outlets.
5. Clothe yourself in tough-guy jackets and hats for publicly showing off your ass.
6. Energize your Repug spin machinery, then go on TeeVee and blame Democrats for the disaster.
7. Go on Faux TeeVee and blame Democrats for poor and slow government response, then brag about what a great job you've done.
Straight from a well-used play book. That's Repug emergency leadership in a nutshell.......
Thanks, Achilleaze. Good summary review from 2017 here and it's not just the Saudis.
Foreign investment in U.S. farmland on the riseBy Johnathan Hettinger and Robert Holly with additional reporting by Jelter Meers/Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
June 22, 2017
Link: https://investigatemidwest.org/2017/06/22/foreign-investment-into-u-s-farmland-on-the-rise/
(snips)
In an overlooked part of the deal, Shuanghui also acquired more than 146,000 acres of farmland across the United States, worth more than $500 million, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
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Indeed, over the past decade, foreign companies have been investing in agricultural land in the United States at a record pace, according to a Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting analysis of USDA data. The data was compiled from 1900 to 2014 under the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA).
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The database shows that between 2004 and 2014, the amount of agricultural land held by foreign investors doubled from 13.7 million acres to 27.3 million acres — an area roughly the size of Tennessee.
It's not only foreign control of land that is of concern. It's also the fact that they're helping to suck our aquifers and river systems dry (along with greedy Americans).
Therefore, in summary, America is loosing precious water table and farm land so Saudis can feed their cows, horses and camels, enabled by our buying their oil. China is enabled by our buying megatons of their cheap merchandise.
Weak and for sale to the lowest bidder.....
on the international land and equipment market. Many more farms will be auctioned thanks to tRump.
Rural bankers in 10 states worry over farm loan defaults
January 17, 2019
Link: https://apnews.com/a9d6a53340864a46b44fbd0331755b04
(snip)
More than 4 of every 10 bankers questioned for the Rural Mainstreet survey for January said they expect farm loan defaults to be the year’s biggest challenge.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, says their outlook is being negatively influenced by tariffs, trade tensions, weak commodity prices and the partial federal government shutdown.
Thanks, very informative. If only American consumers knew!
Obviously, few or none of the deplorables cheering Trump's trade war are aware of those transport "details". Some of that trade may never come back.
From your posts, I suspect you're well aware of this situation, but I was reading on Farm & Ranch/Kearney Hub that corn and soy bean harvests are setting records. What the hell are they going to do with all that product? Sales of pork to China is down, so hogs are eating less of it, LOL.
See:
USDA survey shows record corn and soybean harvests in Nebraska
Link: https://www.kearneyhub.com/news/agriculture/usda-survey-shows-record-corn-and-soybean-harvests-in-nebraska/article_b69d13f6-2e1a-11e9-bf45-338de4c85662.html
and.....
Nebraska’s 2018 corn crop at record high (discusses other crops as well)
Link: https://www.kearneyhub.com/news/agriculture/latest/nebraska-s-corn-crop-at-record-high/article_7c2b0fec-4b69-5ec5-8235-d023621719b2.html
(snip)
I can't comprehend how today's farmers deal with the stress from so many directions, and they have to pay for their own healthcare. Used to be mainly just weather to worry about.
Economic trends turn downward for farmers
Economic trends turn downward for farmersBy Millie Munshi and Shruti Date Singh / Bloomberg
Posted Feb 15, 2019 at 3:59 PM Updated Feb 15, 2019 at 4:00 PM
Read more here: https://www.theledger.com/news/20190215/economic-trends-turn-downward-for-farmers
(snips)
“It’s not a pretty picture, but it’s not getting a lot worse quickly,” said Dan Kowalski, at farm lender CoBank Acb in Greenwood Village, Colorado. “It’s getting modestly worse over time.”
Some of the hurdles have been around for years. Consecutive seasons of bumper crops kept grain inventories flush. At the same time, U.S. meat production was soaring and dairies were overflowing. The supply boom meant prices stayed low for a long time, while robust demand kept things from falling off a cliff. In fact, farm income posted a 22 percent rebound in 2017.
Then came Donald Trump’s trade war.
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“The bailouts did help out some,” Lynn Rohrscheib, chairwoman of the Illinois Soybean Association, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television this week. “But most farmers, they just didn’t want that. We want to be able to grow our crop and receive a fair price.”
Rohrscheib said she knows of some producers who aren’t farming this year because of the tariffs, and that her family “took a $600,000 hit to our annual income” as a result of the trade war.
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Meanwhile, other Trump policies have also taken a bite of out of the farm economy.
A labor shortage , which some in the industry say is at least partly sparked by Trump’s tough stand on immigration, means employers have been forced to boost wages in the face of sluggish markets. On Thursday, U.S. poultry producer Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. said it was increasing wages $50 million, year over year, to attract workers.
What will it take for farmers to finally see that Trump lies to them every time?......
......
Just to refresh our memory.....
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Schiff
Schiff was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, the son of Edward and Sherrill Ann (Glovsky) Schiff. He was raised in a Jewish family, and moved to Danville, California, during high school. He graduated from Monte Vista High School and received a political science degree from Stanford University and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.
After Harvard Law School, Schiff began working as a prosecutor in the Los Angeles branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office. While an assistant U.S. Attorney, he gained attention by prosecuting a case against Richard Miller, a former FBI agent convicted of "passing secret documents to the Soviet Union in exchange for a promised $65,000 in gold and cash." The first time Miller was tried, it resulted in a hung jury; the second time, it resulted in a conviction overturned on appeal, and the third time he was convicted.
California State Senate
Schiff was elected to the California State Senate in 1996, after two unsuccessful bids for state assembly.[8] He chaired that body's judiciary committee during his one term.
One of our many current heroes........
Meanwhile.....
retirees like me on SS are trying to support local teachers through DonorsChoose, desperately sick and hungry people through local charity and GoFundMe, as well as contribute what we can to counter billionaire political funding and contribute to outfits like ACLU and Sierra Club to counter their destruction of rule of law and our environment. Whew!
It's exhausting and I suspect this situation is precisely how Rethug big-wigs planned it in their master plan to demolish the US government.
.....
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Gender: MaleHometown: TN, KY
Home country: USA
Current location: KY
Member since: Thu Jul 6, 2017, 07:43 PM
Number of posts: 14,490